A teenager has been arrested in Cape Town following a shootout with guards during an attempted cash-in-transit heist, the Hawks said on Sunday.
“A 17-year-old… was arrested… on Saturday morning for attempting to rob a cash truck at a railway station in Khayelitsha,” spokesperson Captain Lloyd Ramovha said in a statement.
He said that a cash vehicle had apparently pulled up at the Nolungile railway station at mid-morning to collect cash.
“When the guards were on their way back to the truck, a group of about five armed suspects suddenly fired shots at them.”
The security guards retaliated and the suspects fled the scene on foot, heading to a nearby taxi rank.
“Local police and the Hawks’ National Bureau for illegal Firearms Control and Priority Violent Crime Unit (NBIFCPVC), were summoned on the scene,” Ramovha said.
They pursued the suspects and caught the teenager.
“[He] was found near the taxi rank, sprawled on the ground with apparent gunshot wounds, and a loaded handgun nearby.”
He was currently in hospital in a critical condition, and under police guard.
The Hawks were continuing to search for the remaining suspects.
The arrested teenager is expected to appear in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on Monday to face charges of attempted robbery, attempted murder and possession of unlicensed firearm.
[source: News24]
